Selective alexia and agraphia sparing numbers—a case study

We report a patient (MT) with a highly specific alexia affecting the identification of letters and words but not numbers. He shows a corresponding deficit in writing: his letter writing is impaired while number writing and written calculation is spared. He has no aphasia, no visuo-perceptual or -constructional difficulties, or other cognitive deficits. A similar pattern of performance has to our knowledge only been reported once before [Anderson, S. W., Damasio, A. R., & Damasio, H. (1990). Troubled letters but not numbers. Domain specific cognitive impairments following focal damage in frontal cortex. Brain, 113, 749–766]. This study shows that letter and number reading are dependent on dissociable processes. More interestingly, it points to a common mechanism subserving the perception and production of letters. We suggest that a deficit in a visuo-motor network containing knowledge of the physical shape of letters might explain the pattern of performance displayed by MT.